


Where the Light Enters You

by The_Gong_of_Doom



Category: Friday Night Lights
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-16
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2017-12-29 14:06:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1006328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Gong_of_Doom/pseuds/The_Gong_of_Doom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blah, blah, blah, no one reads my stories let alone reviews them so y'all can go fuck yourselves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Tami and Tyra sat silently in the SUV, waiting for Eric to come back after paying for gas.

“Tyra, are you okay?”

Tyra hesitated. Tami was looking straight ahead; she hadn’t turned in her seat and wasn’t looking in the mirror at Tyra. “Yes ma’am.”

Eric came back to the SYV and got in the driver’s side door, then handed Tami a cup of coffee and a bottle of ice tea. He turned in his seat. “Here.” He passed Tyra a bottle of Canada Dry Ginger Ale. “That’ll help calm you down a little, at least your stomach.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Eric pulled the Explorer back onto the road and  they drove for a while in silence, every so often Eric glanced over at Tami then at Tyra and he opened his mouth a couple of times then shut it.

“Mr. and Mrs. Taylor….umm thank you for coming and getting me and. I-I’m sorry if I messed things up for you tonight, like if y’all were at dinner.”

“That’s all right; the important thing is that you’re safe. Did you leave anything back at the hotel?”

“No ma’am, in fact I took one of the towels with me.”

“Who is that guy?”

Tami glanced at Eric and mouthed, “No,” at him, he caught it and frowned and sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

“He’s….his name is Casg, he’s a guy I…I guess I was dating him, we were seeing each other.

“Does he know where you live?”

“Yeah, he’s been to my house a few times.”

“Is anyone home?”

“What?”

“At your house. Is anyone home?”

“I….I’m not sure. My mom went to see one of my aunts in Dallas and my sister is probably over at the Riggins.”

Eric snorted and Tami shot him another look.

“Did you give this Cash guy a key?”

“Eric.”

“Yes, a couple of weeks ago.”

Eric held his hand up towards Tami. “Listen, this guy, the only things I know about him are that his name is Cash, he has a key to her house,” Eric tipped his chin towards Tyra, “going by what she told you on the phone he was not being very nice towards her and when we got to the hotel, he looked to be gettin’ out of hand. If he has a key and his temper keeps up he might be of a mind to go over and trash the place and it wouldn’t be good if you were there when that happened. What we’re gonna do is swing by your place, we’ll go in and you can get some clothes and you’ll stay at our house for a couple days while we sort this out.”


	2. Chapter 2

Eric looked at Tami when she got her cell phone out. “What’re you doin’?”

“Calling Julie, letting her know Tyra is going to be staying with us for a few days, so she can start getting things ready.” Tami glanced at Tyra as she said this, then put the phone to her ear. “Julie? It’s mom. What took you so long?”

“Um, Payton and Jordan were outside and arguing and wouldn’t come in.” Tami could hear someone else talking, then Julie put her hand over the mouthpiece.

“Julie? _Julie_?”

“Yes, mom.”

“You can leave Heckle and Jeckle out in the yard; they’ll figure it out for themselves. Is Lois over there with you?”

“L-Lois, no, why would you think that?”

“I heard someone else talking.”

“I-I was watching _Sunset Boulevard_.”

“What? We were gonna watch that on family movie night, all of us.” Julie sighed. “I can hear you rolling your eyes, Jules.”

“Yeah, I know we were going to watch it together, until Dad came up with his brilliant romantic plan, which since you’re calling I’m guessing went horribly wrong.”

“Julie. I don’t need you being sassy right now. I called to let you know that we’re on the way home and Tyra is with us and she’s going to be with us for a few days so could you please set up the spare room for her.”

“You’re coming home right now? Whe-where are you?” Julie put her hand over the mouthpiece again.

“We’re about ten minutes away.”

“Okay, look, Tyra can stay in my room with me.”

Tami sighed. “So that means your dad and I have to squeeze into a tiny corner of our bed while Payton and Jordan spread out as much as they want.”

“Not gonna happen,” Eric said loudly enough to be heard by Julie who snorted. “They can sleep in Gracie’s room, or on the floor.”

“Fine, whatever, I guess I’ll see you guys in ten minutes.” Julie paused. “Mom, is everything, is Tyra okay?”

Now it was Tami’s turn to sigh. “She is now, I guess, but there’s some, there’s some stuff going on, I’m not gonna get into it on the phone or when we get home, I think I’ll save it until morning, though I’m sure she’ll fill you in a little.” Tami glanced at Tyra in the rearview mirror.

 

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Later that night after saying good night to Gracie and her parents Julie sat with Tyra on Julie’s bed. “So, what’s going on? Did you and Landry get in a fight or something?”

“Why would I get in a fight with Landry…I wish. No, Landry and I didn’t fight; he was actually nice to me when I called. It’s Cash.”

“That rodeo guy? What happened?”

“We were at the rodeo and he, I don’t know he won some money but it wasn’t enough, I guess he owes some people some money.”

“How much?”

“A lot, I guess.”

“A thousand dollars?”

“More like ten thousand.”

“Seriously? You’re kidding me. Who does he owe ten thousand dollars, a credit card company or the IRS?”

Tyra was shaking her head as she got up and walked around the room, scuffling her bare feet on the carpet. “No. I don’t know, it might be gambling debts or something, he went over to talk to these guys at the rodeo and they started arguing and he got pushed around and that’s when everything changed, when he changed.” Tyra poked her left foot under Julie’s bed, and when she pulled it back there was a pair of blue boxers hanging from her toes. “What the hell? Why would you hav—” Tyra’s eyes gleamed and she smiled wickedly. “Is he still here?”

“Is who here?”

“Matty Saracen.”

“What? Don’t be crazy, he’s not here, he wasn---“

“Julie. Stop. I had to bail out of Landry’s window three times and a couple other guys’ bedroom windows so I know all about leaving underwear behind.” Julie blushed and turned away. “Hey, Julie, I’m not gonna tell anyone, I mean I might tease you and Matt about it, but I’m not gonna tell your parents, you know that.”

“Yeah I know. I feel so dumb. When my dad said that he and mom were going to be at a hotel, I was kinda pissed, but then I thought, _‘hey Matt and I could have a whole night together, indoors this time._ ’ He was nervous about it, but he came over, even though he was worried about Gracie saying something to my parents.”

Tyra laughed. “Julie, can Gracie even say complete sentences? And you could just say that Matt stopped by to ask your dad something.”

“I guess.”

“So, he’s not still here, is he?”

“No, but he almost ran into you guys. He and I were in the living room….” Julie blushed even more fiercely than she had before. “Anyway, he was going all over the house looking for something and Payton and Jordan were following him and he wouldn’t say what he was looking for and finally I told him to just get out.”

“So he’s going commando.”

“Yeah.” Julie smiled.  “So, I guess my parents are worried that Cash might try something, right, that’s why you’re here?”

“Yeah, but you’re dad’s pissed at me for ruining his…whatever he had planned with your mom. He doesn’t like me.”

“Tyra.”

“No. He doesn’t. It’s not just this. I mean your mom didn’t like me at first, and she was kind of right about me not being a great influence on you or whatever, but she helped me out anyway. But your dad, he kept looking at me in the mirror while he was driving and I swear I could hear him grinding his teeth.”

“Look, he had planned this romantic night for my mom and you did mess it up, but my mom wasn’t going to let you just sit there with Cash, he wanted to make sure you were safe. And you are.”

“I guess.”


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning after breakfast, Gracie was planted on the couch watching _Finding Nemo_ , the other Taylors and Tyra sat at the dinner table. Eric had a pad of paper and pen in front of him. “Okay, how long have you known Cash?”

“A couple of months, I guess. We were at the rodeo and he was bull riding, I think my sister or maybe Billy Riggins pointed him out, Billy’s known him for a while longer, and then we were at  a roadhouse and we started talking, and…” Tyra trailed off, twisting her hands together in her lap.

“Where does he live?”

“I, well, he was staying at our house, I guess I mean, I gave him a key.”

“So he just sort of crashed at people’s houses, sleeps on their couches and whatnot.” Eric ran his hand across his cheek. “That does make sense if he’s on the rodeo circuit, hotels can get pricey and I imagine you’d get to know people who you could lean on or ask to stay the night. But you’ve never been to his house? I mean it doesn’t have to be a house, could be a trailer.”

“It’s a house, I don’t know if he owns it, there were a couple other people there, but it’s a house.”

“Where is it?”

“About 40 minutes North West of Dillon, I don’t know the actual address, I just know how to get there, I’m like that, if I drive somewhere once I remember how to get there.”

“Did he give you a key to his place?”

“No?”

“Did you ever ask him for a key?”

“No, and he never asked me for a key I, I just gave it to him.”

“How often did he stay at your place and you at his?”

“Eric.”

“No, this is important. Look, I’m thinking that you need to get a restraining order or order of protection against Cash and I bet there are some conditions that have to be met.”

“I—I think I spent maybe three days at his place and he was at my mom’s house for a couple of weeks, some of this stuff is still there, unless he came  and got it.”

Julie got up, saying, “I’ll get my laptop.” She came back and sat down and tapped on the keys and moved the mouse around. “Okay, according to the Texas Attorney Generals website _‘A protective order is a civil court order issued to prevent continuing acts of family violence._

_Family violence is basically defined as any act by one member of a family or household intended to physically harm another member, a serious threat of physical harm, or the abuse of a child._

_Family includes blood relatives or relatives by marriage, former spouses, parents (married or not) of the same child, foster parents and foster children, or any member or former member of a household (people living in the same house, related or not)._

_To obtain a protective order, the victim and the offender must be (1) related by blood or marriage, (2) living together, or previously lived together, or (3) have a child together._ ’”

Eric nodded. “I thought it’d be something like that. You can’t just run out and get a protection order on some person on the street; you have to have a relationship with them.” He shook his head.  “Has he ever hit you or gotten crazy like he was when we picked you up?”

“He changed.”

“What do you mean?”

“He was showing me around and being  sweet and then he went off to talk to some guys and like I told Julie last night, they started arguing and there was some shoving and when he came back he was upset, which, I mean I understood that, ‘cause those guys were ganging up on him, but he stayed angry. Turned out that he owed money, a lot of money.”

“How much?”

Tyra shrugged. “He didn’t specify, but I think it’s at least ten thousand dollars. Anyway, after that he stayed mad, anything I said just riled him up more. We went to a bar and he yelled at me some more and told me to stay there in the bar and he….just left. I stayed there for a few minutes, but all the other guys were like, leering at me, so I went to the hotel room, and called Mrs. T and then Cash came back and he yelled at me for leaving and yelled at me about the money some more and then you guys were there.”

“A’ight, but has he ever hit you?”

“He…he pushed me around when you guys arrived and a couple times when he—we had been drinking we’d argue and he pushed me down…” Tyra looked down at the table and a tear fell from her eye and splashed on the surface. “When the girl came around with her kid and I told him about it he did slap me.” She wiped her eyes but continued to look down.

“What girl?”

“I don’t know, I’m not sure of her name…Cindy or Brandy and I don’t know where she lives, she showed up at Cash’s place one night and she had a kid with her and she said it was Cash’s and that he owed child support,” Eric snorted. “He came home and I told him she came by and he started yelling and throwing things, saying, ‘ _why did you say anything to her, what did you tell her_ ’ and I was just standing there, and I said something like, ‘Are you serious? I was just supposed to stand there and say nothing?’ and then he slapped me.”

“You said last night that your sister is over at the Riggins, is that a permanent thing, has she moved all of her stuff over?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t help her move, she probably has some stuff still at my mom’s house, but  as far as I know she hasn’t spent a night there in a couple of months. I mean, she’s stopped by for a few hours to visit, but I mostly see her at Tim’s place or where she works.”

“Uh huh. And your mom is in Dallas?”

“Yes, visiting my aunt.”

“For how long?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well is your aunt sick or in the hospital?”

“No…I think they just wanted to get together for a while.”

“Well, how long is ‘a while?’”

“I don’t know, in the past it’s been a few days to a couple of months. I can call and find it but when they’re together they can change their plans a lot.”

“Spur of the moment type of thing.”

“Yes sir.”

Eric tapped the pad with his pen as thought and read over his notes.

“Okay. Here’s what we’re gonna do. Get a locksmith to come out to your place and change the locks, maybe put in a deadbolt. You can get some more clothes and whatever else you may need’ cause you should stay with us for a few more days. As for the order of protection, I think the sticking point might be whether the police would accept that you and Cash were living together. That thing Julie read didn’t specify anything in terms of duration or amount of days needed to qualify as living together, but I’m pretty sure the police will know more about that. So, I’ll call the locksmith and meet them at your house while you and Tami go to the police and get the order or at least file to get the order. Sounds like you may have to see a judge or they have to rule on it.”

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“No, I’m not going to the police.”

Eric’s eyes flashed, and he got what Tami and Julie called the _Coach’s Look_ on his face. He jabbed the pen in his hand at Tyra. “What do you mean you aren’t going to the police? How the hell do you expect to get an order of protection without going to the police? I tell you what; I am not going to stand guard outside of your house every night for you. Who do you think you are? You sh—“

“Eric! Come outside with me.”

“Wha—“

“Now.”

Eric pushed back from the table and followed Tami to the back patio. They watched Jordan and Payton amble off into the yard and start to chase and growl at each other.

“What is wrong with you?”

“Wrong with me, what’re you talkin’ about?”

“You are interrogating that girl like she’s the one who’s done something wrong.”

“Like she hasn’t? She’s probably had sex with half the players on my team, she was well on her way to flunking out of school before you had to take her under your wing and make a project out of her, she brought strippers to school in order to win the election for student body president, and apparently she’s been spending more time with this Cash guy then she has in school.”

“So, it’s a horrible thing, in fact it’s the worst thing in the world if she has sex with any of your players because that’s gonna be some kind of distraction, and instead of thinking about what pass pattern they’re supposed to run or who they’re supposed to block they’re gonna be thinking of her naked body and lose a game for you? Come on, Eric, if Tim Riggins can play games for you when he’s drunk and hung over and not screw up, the other players will be fine. As for my making a project out of her, yes I’ve done that, and I’m proud to have done it and I’m proud of her.”

“Oh, and let’s not forget her getting her claws into Julie.”

Tami shook her head. “What?”

“Julie was doing just fine until she met that girl,” Eric jerked his thumb over his shoulder, “and then suddenly she was skipping class and being out to all hours and lying to us about where she was and going to parties an—“

“You think she didn’t go to parties before she met Tyra?”

“Well, she didn’t lie about where she was going.”

“How do you know that? How do you know that Julie wasn’t off at some party when she said she was at the movies with Lois?”

“Because it’d have been damn hard for them to get from the movie theater to wherever the party was with no car and get back into the theater before I came by to pick them up.”

Tami sighed. “Y’know what, I am not going to go around and around with you on how bad a job we _both_ are doing raising our two children because we aren’t. Yes Julie has made some mistakes and screwed up, but we did the same things in high school.”

“Really? I don’t remember being caught drunk by my parents.”

“”Uh huh, just like you don’t remember coming up to me before first period one Thursday and cajoling me into skipping because your dad had gone out of town for the weekend and that meant we had a lot of ‘alone time.’ Now, we are gonna go back inside and you are going to apologize to Tyra and then we’re all going to do what you suggested. Those were suggestions and not orders, right?”

“Fine. But I want to know why she’s so against going to the cops. She can’t get a restraining order without going over there and talking to them.”

Tami frowned. “I know that. I think it’s because she has a history with the Dillon police department and when she went there after she was assaulted they were, well they were pretty rough on her, like they didn’t believe her.”

Eric sighed. “A’ight, let’s go.” They walked back inside and sat at the table. Gracie was in Tyra’s lap having her hair braided. “Gracie Bell, I thought you wanted to watch _Nemo_?”

“I was watching, but I can watch it later, I want to sit with you.”

“A’ight.” Eric looked at Tyra. “I’m sorry for earlier. I guess I was kind of interrogating you before and I got into what Tami and Julie call ‘Coach Mode.’ Mrs. Taylor just told me you had a bit of rough time after you got assaulted year before last, so I can see why you might not be thrilled with going to the police, but you can’t get an order of protection without seeing them. Far as I can tell, that’s the first step in the process.”

“It isn’t because of the assault, it,” Tyra’s eyes darted from Eric to Tami to Julie, “it’s because of how they treated me after what happened last year.”

Tami leaned forward. “What happened last year?”

“After Landry killed the guy who tried to rape me.”

“What the fuck!?”


	4. Chapter 4

“Eric Taylor!”

Julie and Tami both looked horrified, but a smile flashed across Tyra’s face for a moment, then she clamped her hands over Gracie’s ears.

Eric flushed and ran his hands through his hair. He opened his mouth several times, then closed it and sat there with his arms crossed.

Tami looked ashen as she spoke. “Landry did what?”

“He…he killed the guy who tried to rape me two years ago.”

“Landry. Landry Clarke.”

“Yes, Landry Clarke.”

“How---what happened? Julie did you know about this?”

Julie frowned. “I didn’t even know about Tyra getting assaulted or whatever until last year and all I got then was that someone had come after Tyra.”

“Tyra, what happened?”

“Two summers ago, I was at the pool, in the parking lot and he was there, in a car. I don’t know if he’d been waiting for me or what, but he tried to run me down. A couple days later I was driving and he came up behind me and chased me until I pulled into the parking lot of the post office.  Landry was at my house watching _Fried Green Tomatoes_ one night and I got hungry so we went to the store, and, I told Landry to go in because we hadn’t paid our tab and I was waiting outside and I heard his voice and he grabbed me and threw me against a pole and I was trying to yell or scream, but I couldn’t breathe.” Tears were running out of Tyra’s eyes and dropping from her cheeks to the table top and her nose was running. Tami had a hand to her mouth and Eric fists were clenched.  “And then Landry was there and he tried to grab the guy, but he punched Landry and he came after me again and Landry grabbed a pipe and hit him in the head, and the guy went down and Landry hit him in the head again.”

“How was this not in the news?”

Tyra shook her head.

Tami reached across the table and put her hand over Tyra’s. “Tyra, honey, it’s okay. This, it doesn’t leave the house, it doesn’t leave this table.”

“I don’t know why we didn’t call someone, I mean, Landry’s dad is a cop, I don’t know, I—I just don’t. We put the guy’s body in Landry’s car and drove around for a while, Landry was saying we had to go to the police, I kept saying no, I don’t know why, I just said no. We ended up on a bridge on the west edge of town over the river and dumped his body over the edge. And I thought that was it, but Landry, well you know what he’s like, he was getting antsy and then someone found the body and then like a day later the police came to our house and brought me over to the station and put me in a room. I was there for six hours. They asked me questions over and over,” Tyra shook her head. “I didn’t say anything. Not one word. Didn’t even nod yes or no when they asked me my name or if I wanted something to drink or needed to use the restroom.”

“You never asked for a lawyer?”

“No. They’d go in and out and they left the door open and I heard them talking about me in the hall, saying I had a reputation and calling me the town slut and how I had made up some story about being assaulted the year before.”

Tami gasped.

“That made me angry. I was getting tired and would have said something, but that made me so mad, not so much the slut stuff although that did hurt, but that I had lied about being assaulted. I set it that I wouldn’t say anything. Finally I just got up, opened the door and walked out and walked until I found a phone, and got Tim Riggins to give me a ride home. Then Landry’s dad showed up and pretty much told me to stay the hell away from his son, that he knew what kind of girl I was and that he didn’t want that kind of trouble around his son.” Tyra scrunched up her face. “And, it got a little weird after that. I guess they did some tests and matched some fibers or something on the guys’ body to car fibers that matched Landry’s car and Landry and his dad took his car out somewhere and burned it.”

“No way,” Julie half whispered.

“Yup. I don’t know where they did it, but I’ve never seen the car since then. But then Landry walked into the station and told them he had killed the guy. He was talking to the detectives and I guess one of them got hold of his dad and told him his son was putting his head in a noose; his dad came down and pulled him out of there. And I guess Landry’s dad has some pull somewhere because he was never charged with anything, I guess they never found out about the car and the fact that the guy had one conviction for rape and a couple of assaults as well as being a suspect in a few more rapes, it wasn’t a bad thing that he was gone.”

Eric leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh. “So nobody was charged with anything. Not you, not Landry.”

“No sir.”

“Was the case officially closed?”

“I don’t know. Landry said they weren’t pressing charges and it’s been about a year. I just, I don’t want to go to the station because I know they’ll talk me again.”

“Do you know the names of the people who said those things about you? Were they cops?”

“One was a detective the other one had a uniform on, I don’t remember their names…I guess I would recognize them if they were there.”

“A’ight. Here’s what I think we should do.” Eric glanced at Tami who smiled. “I’ll call a locksmith and Julie and I will meet him at your house. You, Tami and Gracie will go to the police station and get the order of protection or at least start the process of getting one. If they say anything Tami will shut them down. Then the three of you can meet us at your house and you can get some clothes and whatever else you need for a few more days.  You need to call your sister and your mom and tell them what’s happened and that the locks have been changed.”

“About that, how much does it cost to change all the locks? I have money but I’m saving up for college.”

“I don’t know, probably have to wait until the locksmith takes a look at your house, but if you like I can call a couple places and get an estimate, just tell me how many doors and such you have. I do think you should get a deadbolt. Right now, I want to make sure you’re safe, we can figure out payment and such later.”

“Thanks.” Gracie got out of Tyra’s lap and walked over to Payton who was lying on the floor.

“Can Payton and Jordan go with us?”

“Not this time Gracie Belle, we’ll take them for a walk when we get back.”

“What the _fuck?!"_


	5. Chapter 5

“Gracie Belle Taylor!”

Gracie looked from Tami to Eric, all wide eyed and innocent. Julie and Tyra looked away to hide their smiles and Julie bit her lip trying to keep from laughing. “What?”

“That---that’s something you shouldn’t say.”

“I shouldn’t say ‘what?’”

“No, that’s fine, it’s---you shouldn’t say that phrase you just said.”

“Daddy said it, I was just repeating.”

“I understand that, it’s just there are some words you shouldn’t say and you said one of them.”

“Which one?”

Eric got up and walked to the counter and got out the Yellow Pages. He looked at Tami. “This could go on all day.  Tyra and Tami will go to the police and Gracie and the two puppies will come with Jules and me.”

Gracie squealed and ran to the coat rack and grabbed two leashes hanging from a hook. She shook them. “Jordan! Payton!”

 

Two hours later Eric was standing on the front steps of Angela Collette’s house with Julie, watching Gracie run up and down the lawn, well run while being dragged by Payton and Jordan, who were also nipping and barking at each other.

“They’ve been goin’ at each other like that since the afternoon we brought Jordan home. You remember that?”

Julie shaded her eyes from the sun and smiled. “I brought Payton to the park because mom thought it would be better if they met on ‘neutral ground.’ You didn’t tell me Jordan had wanted to stay in his crate the whole way home or that he threw up twice. Payton didn’t want _anything_ to do with him. She’d either ignore him or growl at him so loudly he’d go hide under a chair.”

“Yeah, and then he’d cry at night. Or whimper. He even made your mom cry one night doing that.”

“He did not.”

“Yeah. It was a road game and we stayed overnight. I guess he started crying that afternoon and kept it up until the next morning. And Payton wasn’t growling at him or anything, she just ignored him. I guess that’s part of why he was crying he was lonely and much as there was you me and your mom, they aren’t the same as another dog, we can’t really talk to each other, it’s just a few words they learn on their part and a lot of guesswork on our part. Your mom took them to the vet and she said they were fine, no bite marks or anything, it was just something that they had to work out between themselves and maybe they hadn’t figured out how to do that yet.”

“Kind of like coaching certain players.”

“Like Tim Riggins?”

“No, with Tim I think it’s that you let him slide more than the rest of the team. I mean like with Smash and Matt.”

“How do you mean?”

“Smash is a loud mouth and he’s egotistical and he brags and talks about himself in the third person all the time, even in class, but he’s pretty insecure….well not that insecure, but he uses that mouth like a shield. He uses it to build himself up. I noticed a couple of times when he was running his mouth too much that you started calling him Brian at a couple practices. To sort of humble him, like his mom does, but not humiliate him. And he knows why you did it. With Matt, you had to build him up and at the same time not try to put too much on him. He had to go from not running any plays at all the whole summer and preseason in practice to having to run the team the second half of the first game. His wanting to date me didn’t make it easier for him, but neither did people like Buddy Garrity.”

“I think I’ve been tough on Matt, but fair, and I’ve tried to steer him away from Buddy as often as I can, but he’ll show up in my office the middle of the day 4 days a week sometimes, right when I’m in a coaches meeting. And he is head of the boosters and that does give him a bit of say in certain things. Like I said a couple years ago, Matt Saracen is tough, he can handle a lot.”

“He can, but that doesn’t mean he should have to.”

Eric scratched his cheek. “We’re not talkin’ about football now, are we? I know Matt works nearly thirty hours a week at the Alamo Freeze and takin’ care of his grandmother and her…dementia and having his parents leave him to be raised by his grandmother and then he has school and homework and football. But that last one, football, that’s a choice he has made. No one forced him to try out for the team. His dad wasn’t around to get on him to play football, he chose to do it. The other things he has to do and I think he’s done a pretty good job. Has it been tough on him sometimes? Sure. Remember when you came home a couple years ago and told us the problems he was having with his dad and whatnot?” Julie nodded. “We helped him out with that, your mom more than I did, I talked with him a little bit then and I’ve talked with him a couple times since then. He’s got his mom back now doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, and he’s warming up to her, but there’s, I don’t know, resentment there.”

Eric nodded. “I can understand that. Look, Matt isn’t the only player or person in this town with problems and stuff going on in their lives. Tim Riggins is pretty much on his own, Smash was raised by his mom, Tyra by her mom, there aren’t as many traditional families here or in the rest of the country as there used to be.” He stood up and waved as Tami’s car pulled in behind his SUV. Tyra and Tami got out and walked over to Eric and Julie.

“New locks?”

“Including deadbolts front and back.” Eric looked at Tyra. “Have you been having problems with skunks?”

Tami put her hand to her mouth. “Please don’t say that Jordan and Payton got sprayed.”

“No, but they started barking and jumping at the door, I thought it might be Cash, so I put them on the leash. Turned out there was a skunk in the bushes.” Eric pointed to some scrub brush to the right of the front door.

Tyra frowned and shook her head. “Yeah, there was one right around there a couple of weeks ago, I got scared s—“

“This was before Cash?”

“Yeah. I got scared and called Landry and he came over and went out there with a bat, then came running back yelling that there was a skunk. He didn’t get sprayed.”

“You tell your mom or your sister about it?”

“No.”

“Hmmmm.” Eric walked down the driveway then back up. “I think it’s a good deterrent if someone comes snooping around or scooping the place out, but you could also end up with a skunk in the living room. We can wait a few days but I think you’re gonna need to have animal control out here to take it away. Why don’t you and Julie go in and get your clothes and whatever else you need and then we’ll head on home.” After Tyra and Julie had gone inside Eric turned to Tami. “How are you?”

“I’m doin’ fine sugar.”

“How did it go at the station?”

Tami paused. “There are some really shitty people who are working for that police department.”

“Uh oh.”

“Fortunately Landry Clarke’s dad isn’t one of them. He saw us waiting at the front desk and came over, and then we went to a room to talk about things, what happened. He asked Tyra if she had told the Dallas police what happened at the hotel, because that was out of Dillon’s jurisdiction, but she could still press charges if she wanted to, in fact it would make it easier to get the protection order if she did. She asked if she would have to go to Dallas to give a statement, and she looked like that was the last thing she would do. But I guess Homeland Security means a lot of money gets thrown at law enforcement these days, they have a video setup where you can talk to other departments and take statements and such. She had to be sworn in and will have to go to the Dillon station and sign the actual statement when it gets mailed there in a couple of days.  Got the information needed for the order and the paperwork started, Tyra will probably need to go back at least once before she sees the judge and I think one or both of us should go with her.”

“That bad?”

Tami shook her head. “It just infuriates me.  I know that Tyra has a reputation that she does more or less deserve….”

“So what happened to get you riled up?”

“It was while we were waiting for the hookup with Dallas, Mr. Clarke stepped out to get some forms and also to tell his boss what was going on. He left the door open and someone walked by and looked in, then walked back. A bit later there were two people standing out there, talking, you know, in that ‘we’re whispering but loud enough because we want you to hear us,’ way. I’m not gonna repeat it all, but the words ‘slut,’ and ‘Tyra Collette’ were said more than once.”

“Did you go out and let them know how impolite they were being?”

Tami sighed and pushed her hair back. “I wanted to, but they were cops and I’m sure they would have had no problem charging me with something. “ She smiled. “Mr. Clarke came back and shut them down. He was polite, but I could tell he was embarrassed and furious. Like you I don’t think he liked Tyra, but he’s warming up to her and he does not like it when as he put it, ‘Women are not treated gentlemanly.’”

“That’s an interesting way to put it.” Tyra and Julie came out of the house with a suitcase and a trash bag and locked the door. “Back door locked and all the windows as well?” Tyra nodded. “A’ight. Gracie Belle, bring those two over here, we’re going home.”


	6. Chapter 6

When they got back to the Taylors house, Tyra and Julie took Gracie and the dogs for a walk. Tami poured herself a glass of wine and went to the porch out back where Eric was slumped in a chair.

“Hey.”

Eric sighed.

“Let me guess you want to know how long Tyra is going to stay with us and when she’s gonna pay us back for the locks.”

Eric grunted.

Tami put her hair behind her ear. “C’mon now sugar, I’m not gonna hold it against you. If you remember, which you do ‘cause it happened half an hour ago, I asked you to go with Tyra.”

“Really? You’re really not gonna bring it up down the road some night when we’ve been snuggling and maybe things could go further; you swear that you’re not gonna just sit up in bed and say, ‘Uh, uh, remember when you were at the Landing Strip?’ and then roll over away from me.”

On the way home Tami had decided that they should stop at the Landing Strip to drop the new key off to Mindy, which had caused Eric to sigh and scrunch up his face. When they had pulled into the parking lot, Tami had said, “Ok, Eric, you go with Tyra while she tells Mindy what’s going on.”

“What? Go in there?” Eric jabbed his finger in the general direction of the building. “Why?”

“You know why, it’s just a precaution.”

At this Eric leaned over and whispered in Tami’s ear, “Aw c’mon. Like there aren’t bouncers inside who pretty much do nothing but throw people around. Besides, you can’t think Cash is gonna be in there.”

“I don’t know sugar, given what Tyra’s told us, he certainly seems like the type who might spend some time in strip clubs.”

Eric had sighed again and pulled his hat down tight on his head, then took his hat off and got out of the Explorer. “C’mon, let’s get this done.”

Of course when they got inside he was recognized immediately with several shouts of “Hey, Coach Taylor!” Tyra had disappeared somewhere; Eric assumed it was a dressing room or something like that where the women waited until it was their time to get up on the stage which Eric was NOT looking at. He started towards the bar, but figured that would mean someone would come over and start talking and the last thing he wanted was more attention, so he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms and looked everywhere but the stage. Or at any of the other women walking around or leaning over people sitting at the tables which ringed the stage. He looked at his watch and grimaced. Where the hell was Tyra? It’s not like she had to tell her sister everything that had happened to her, just give her the key and tell her the lock had been changed. And if Tyra was telling the truth, Mindy was pretty much living fulltime at the Riggins place anyway.

Eric was thinking this when his eyes fell upon a table occupied by none other than Billy and Tim Riggins, the latter taking a huge swig from a beer. Eric groaned and ran his hand through his hair. Then Julie walked through the door and looked around then there was a squeal and a half-naked woman ran over and hugged Julie, who returned the hug. Julie looked over and saw Eric leaning against the wall, then asked the stripper, “Have you seen Tyra or Mindy?”

“I think they’re in the back, you want me to get ‘em for ya?”

“No, you three will end up talking, I’ll be right back.”

To Eric’s horror, the stripper had come over and stood next to him, putting her hand on his arm. He kept his eyes locked on the far wall, grinding his teeth. “Coach Taylor, that was some nice coaching Friday, but do you really think Matt Saracen should be playing receiver?”

“Wh—what?”

“Well, he’s still a quarterback, right?”

“JD McCoy is QB1.”

“Yes, but Matt is the backup, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well he could get hurt, break his leg or sprain an ankle and then if JD goes down, who do you put in?”

Eric couldn’t believe he was having a serious discussion about his players with a stripper. He looked at his watch again. “Look. Saracen is tough, he’s been banged around in practice, but so have the other players.” He saw Tyra Julie and Mindy come out of a doorway across the room and pushed off from the wall. “It was nice talkin’ to you, but we’ve gotta be going.”

“Nice talking to you, think about what I said and say hi to Buddy Garrity for me.”

Eric related all this to Tami while they sat on the back deck, running his hands through his hair and grimacing.

“So Tim Riggins was sitting at a table and he was drinking beer.”

“See, I knew that you’d focus on that. You should have told me who I was talking to before I laid all that out.”

“What do you mean?”

“Am I talking to my wife, to my friend or to the principal of Dillon High School?”

Tami blinked her eyes a few times. “Oh. Oh, no Eric do you think I’d bring Tim Riggins in and suspend him?”

“Either that or you say I have to suspend him for a game or the season. And who’s to say that someone isn’t gonna come to your office or send you a later telling you about Tim being there and my seeing him and what are you going to do about that and whatnot? Or that woman that was talking to me and told me to say hi to Buddy. She could say something.”

“Oh come on now. You seriously think she’s gonna march into the school board or the athletic commission and say she saw you in a strip club with Tim Riggins?”

“I wasn’t with Tim Riggins.”

“I know that, but that you saw him drinking and didn’t rush over and stop him or something. If anything, she and Tim have slept together a couple of times.”

Eric put his hands over his face. “Don’t say that, I don’t want to hear that.”

“Fine. As for Buddy, are you really surprised that she knows him? This is Buddy Garrity, we’re talking about, y’know they guy who sat next to you at a bar and told you way too much about how unfaithful he was to his wife for years and years and years, but that he had a magical plan to fix it.”

“It doesn’t bother you that your oldest daughter is pretty good friends with a stripper? Not even a little bit?”

“How do you know they’re friends?”

“The way they hugged each other, they have to know each other pretty well. But it’s puzzling, I can’t see how they met, well that’s not true, they probably met two years ago when Julie and all them got arrested, but how they got to be friends. I think Julie got a pretty clear idea that we didn’t want her going near that place.”

“Well she’s been over at Tyra’s house a good piece of time and with Mindy being a stripper and Mindy’s friends being strippers I think it’s safe to say that’s where they got to know each other. But do I think that she’s going down the road to being a stripper at ninety miles an hour? No.”

“You’re pretty calm about this seeing as you got hysterical over Julie having a tattoo.”

“Wha-a-at?”

“I believe your exact words were, ‘How can you have ruined your beautiful perfect body forever?’ followed by your daughter sashay-storming off and slamming the door to her room.”

“Well, I don’t recall you sitting there very calmly either. In fact, you’re usually the one who sets things off, you get into ‘Coach Mode’ too easily.”

“That’s true. I can even tell when I start to do it, and sometimes I stop and sometimes I don’t. I’m just used to telling people what I expect from them and having them do it without talking back.” Eric rubbed his chin. “But it’s more than that. I guess I’m kind of tired of being a parent to seventy five or eighty teenagers every year. Tired of having them show up on my front door because their dad threw them out. Tired of having them show up in your office because they set another students hair on fire or shove some freshman in to a locker. And you trying to save every kid, trying to solve every problem that a kid has.”

“So you think that’s a bad thing? I should tell Tyra that she can’t stay with us and I should expel every kid who gets sent to my office? What about Santiago?”

“What about him?”

“You pushed me to let him enroll so that he could play on the team.”

“No, Buddy pushed you. He pulled his usual trick of starting some scheme in motion and when it was too late to stop hooking me in on it so if it did come crashing down I’d be the one taking the blame and dealing with the consequences, while he was there on the side with a shocked smile on his face at being found out again. And Santiago, that was all Buddy. He pushed you to let him enroll, well Lyla pushed a little too, but mostly Buddy. Then he pushed me to let him workout. Then there was the deal with Santiago not having any relatives here in the country, and Buddy sweet talked you and me into saying he could handle Santiago living with him. Except Santiago’s gang buddies showed up and wrecked Buddy’s apartment the day before his probation officer visited, with the end result being a parole violation, which meant expulsion and he’s back in juvie and I was lucky to get away without being suspended or the team having to forfeit a game.

“C’mon, Tyra brought a bunch of strippers to the school. They were on school property shimmying and twirling and whatever else it is strippers do and you didn’t do anything.”

“Hey, I shut it down. I got the strippers out of there.”

“But you didn’t give Tyra detention. You didn’t suspend her. Hell, I guarantee if she had pulled that at another school she’d have been expelled.”

“Well, what about what goes on at the parties your players go to every weekend?”

“What about it? First of all, none of those parties take place on school property or our house, so neither of us has any authority. And the last thing I’m gonna do is drive all over town tryin’ to find out where all the parties are and dragging my players out of ‘em.”

Tami started to reply but was interrupted by barking as Payton and Jordan ran onto the patio and then into the yard nipping and chasing each other, followed by Julie, Gracie and Tyra.

“Those two are gonna sleep tonight. How was y’all’s walk?”

Julie and Tyra looked at each other, then at Gracie. Julie said, “Well it was, okay.”

“The Gordon’s cat wasn’t out was it?”

“No, but Mrs. Roth was and…”

“What?”

“She asked how we were doing and Gracie….Gracie told her she had learned a new word and Mrs. Roth asked what the word was and Gracie told her.”

Tyra shook her head slightly. “Not a word. A phrase. She learned a new phrase.”

Gracie said gleefully, “What the _FUCK!”_

Eric groaned and buried his face in his hands.


End file.
